Photographed from a nearby tower, ca. 1908; a vineyard is below.

A complex which contains a monastery, palace, school, mausoleum and museum; Philip II built the monastery 1563-1584 as a memorial to victory over French in 1557. It became his main residence and was later was the dynastic center of the Spanish Hapsburgs. The monastery was originally a property of the Hieronymite monks, it is now a monastery of the Order of Saint Augustine. The church of the monastery is the Basilica of San Lorenzo el Real.